WordPress is one of the best content management systems for SEO. In fact, it powers more than 400 million websites in the world. These include global conglomerates like Vogue, international names like Snoop Dogg, and government portals like the White House.
Out of the box, WordPress is search-engine friendly and offers various plugins to help you manage your website SEO. You can maintain your website SEO and implement your SEO strategy using a powerful SEO plugin with WordPress. This article will examine five of the best SEO plugins for WordPress and how they can help you.
Yoast SEO
Active on over 13 million websites, Yoast SEO is considered the best free SEO plugin for WordPress. Easy to use and comprehensive, its free version gives access to many ranking and technical SEO features. These include:
● Keyword analysis
● Readability analysis
● Titles and meta tags
● Schema markup
● Canonical URLs; and
● XML sitemaps
But its most impressive free feature -- which isn't available from other plugins without a cost -- is its ability to enable breadcrumbs for websites. Breadcrumbs are navigational markers that are important for SEO because:
● They tell website visitors where they are; and
● They help Google index and navigate your website
The Yoast premium plugin will help you fine-tune your SEO strategy if you need more SEO features. Some of the most impressive features you'll get are as follows.
Comprehensive Support for Creating SEO-Friendly Content
With Yoast premium, you can easily customise your content to be more SEO-friendly. You'll get handy suggestions for improving keyphrases, SEO titles, outbound links, and more. And it's available in various languages, including French, Swedish, Japanese, Spanish, and Turkish.
Site Maintenance
Need to do routine SEO tasks? Yoast guides you through a site maintenance checklist to ensure your website uses SEO opportunities.
Internal Links and Structured Data
The premium version of this plugin also comes with a site structure that features solid internal linking tools. Additionally, it flags dead links and automatically creates redirects. And you can add structured data to help Google better understand your website.
Integrations with Other Platforms
Finally, Yoast integrates with other platforms for better SEO performance. These include Zapier, Semrush, WordProof, and more.
All in One SEO
This plugin is another excellent resource for beginners. Some say it's even more user-friendly than Yoast, even for those without SEO experience.
All in One SEO or AIOSEO makes it easy to set up a WordPress site for SEO with little to no fuss. To start, all you need to do is install a setup wizard and answer prompts. Similarly, it offers an in-depth analysis of your SEO efforts to help you see where you'd need to improve.
All in One SEO also integrates with other platforms, such as Google Search Console, Facebook, etc. And it provides support for WooCommerce product pages and categories.
What makes it stand out, though, is its actionable insights. With AIOSEO, you know what to work on to improve your site's SEO.
Other essential features of this plugin include the following:
● Internal link suggestions and redirections
● SEO audits
● Google News, XML, and Video SEO sitemaps
● On-page analysis
● Schema markup support; and
● Social media integration